Home Posts tagged "surviving"

Tag: surviving

Meandering in Not-My House

I am a good provider. I don’t know exactly when it became a big deal to me. Well, yes. I do. It was probably hanging around before the pandemic, but when COVID hit and nothing could be counted on, when I couldn’t even reliably find toilet paper—that brought it to the front. I needed to make sure I was providing for my family. And I have, I do. Probably more than I really should, but hey. We all have our hangups, and there are worse ones. For instance, Christmas dinner. Child 1 wanted ham. Child 2 cannot eat ham. Did I override child 1? Did I just get something small for child 2? No. No, dear reader. I got a ten pound ham, and an eight pound rib roast. For four people. And dessert? I love pumpkin pie. It’s necessary. If it’s available, I’m having it. In order to take it easy on us in a strange house and awkward kitchen, we decided we’d get dessert from Costco. But child did not want pumpkin pie. They wanted Costco’s wonderful tuxedo cake. Fine, then—I would get both. Only when I got there, all the tuxedo cakes were gone. So I got a cheesecake along with the pumpkin pie. And a chicken pot pie for Christmas Eve dinner. Can you say “leftovers?” One advantage of this house is that the fourth bedroom is part of a mother-in-law suite. So it has its own refrigerator. Thank goodness. It’s been such a plus that…

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Another August Survived

Almost, anyway. Two more days. I got this. Is it silly to say I’ll miss it? As busy and draining and wild as it is, I do love the rush of August. I wouldn’t mind doing it twice a year. No, that’s not true. That would throw me off so much. Like anything else, a school year has a rhythm, and each season brings its own challenges. August ends, we settle into September, and boom! It’s October. Fall break and the scramble to get things done while the classrooms are empty. Many of the great plans from the beginning of the year aren’t working, so rearranging and rethinking are in order. Not to mention fixing all the things we’ve been getting by with–new holes in the walls, old glitches in the heating in that one classroom…and then we’re back, and it’s second quarter, and holy CATS how is it nearly Thanksgiving break?? I certainly should be used to the rhythm of the school year by now. It’s hard for me to believe, but I’ve been working in schools for over twenty years. Many times I’ve said that I don’t know how people work in regular offices. How do you cope without regular incursions of the small and squirmy? Do you just…not have swearing teens stomp through your office demanding that their parent be called because that woman is traumatizing them? How do you manage week after week in which no parent shows up with a baby sibling to coo over??…

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I Am Not Prepared

Tell me I’m not the only one who lands in this boat every blinking time I/they turn around. I had every intention of being prepared. I like to write my TDP post on Sunday, edit it a bit on Monday, and go through it once more quickly Tuesday before I post it. Alas, that didn’t happen this week. I blame the shingles vaccine. Don’t get me wrong–I’m very glad to have the shingles vaccine! I’ve heard shingles itself is horrible. But I hadn’t planned to get the vaccine on Sunday, and then I did, and I hadn’t planned for it to knock me on my butt, since vaccines rarely slow me down–but this one did. I started dragging Sunday afternoon, and by Monday morning I could barely get out of bed. I told my boss if the zombies had come that day, I would have blended in just fine. So anyway. Not prepared. I didn’t prep my food for the week either, or get water and now I have to go tonight and it’s storming, and… Anyway. Speaking of boats, I’ve been watching Drain the Oceans on National Geographic. It’s more fascinating than I expected, though I’m not sure why I’m surprised–it has shipwrecks, secrets, archeology, and history. What wouldn’t I love about that? Last night’s episode (watched twice because I fell asleep watching it the first time, see above re: vaccine) was especially good, as they were searching for slave ships and other wrecks that illustrated that dark time…

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Hiding in a Book

Last time I posted, I was using Pentatonix reaction videos to get through my days. Things were rough, I said. It was a coping mechanism. Well, things continue to be rough. So I’ve fallen back on the original distraction, in my life anyway–today I am reading a book. I don’t have a lot of time for reading, usually. Or, I do, if I, you know, I didn’t do all those other things that I should be doing. So I don’t do a lot of it. I know me. If I start a book, I want to FINISH the book, and everything else can go hang. So guess what I did today? In my defense, I was stuck in a dentist’s office, waiting for a loved one to have a procedure. I had intended to write! I have a story due. But the office was loud. And hot. And did I mention dentist’s office? Very uncomfortable all around. So I tried to write, and it didn’t work. And then I tried to go on Twitter, because that’s something that only takes the time you have–but I recently came down on myself for wasting too much time on Twitter, and set my app blocker to only allow seven minutes of every hour. Locked the profile, too–can’t turn it off for ten days. Whoops. So there I sat, in the dentist’s office, trying to ignore drills, trying not to think about the bill, not wanting to use data… (yes, I know Twitter uses…

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